1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for supplying water (H2O) in a manufacturing process of a product, and relates to an apparatus for supplying high purity water used for a working process of a product surface and a washing and cleaning process thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to a water supplying apparatus and a method thereof for peeling out a disused material such as a resist film, a polymer residue or the like attached to a subject surface such as a semiconductor wafer, a hard disc (HD), a liquid crystal display (LCD), a flat panel display (FPD) or the like in a lithography process so as to remove.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a manufacturing process of a semiconductor apparatus, a liquid crystal display, a magnetic disc, a printed circuit board or the like, a resist is applied to a surface of the subject and a high-precision process such as a pattern forming or the like is applied to the surface of the subject by using a lithography. Thereafter, a process of removing the disused material such as the resist film, the polymer residue or the like attached to the surface of the subject is executed.
As a technique of removing the disused material such as the resist film or the like which has been conventionally executed, there are a plasma asher method of ashing and removing the resist film by oxygen plasma, a method of thermally removing a film body by an organic solvent (a phenol solvent, a halogen solvent or the like), a thermally dissolving method executed by concentrated sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide, and the like.
However, in any of the methods mentioned above, a time, an energy and a chemical material for disassembling and dissolving the resist film and the like are required, and a load in the process of disassembling and dissolving the resist film and the like is great. The plasma asher method is generally well known, however, there is a problem that a charge-up damage generated by charged particles is great. Further, since there is a problem that it is impossible to sufficiently remove a reaction product (a polymer residue) generated in an etching process, it is necessary to wet remove this, so that there is a problem that a number of processes is increased. Accordingly, in a field of a precision surface treatment technique including a technique of removing the disused material such as the resist film and the like, a great attention is paid to a method of using water and water vapor which are rich in the natural world, as a technique casting off from the prior art using the chemical material and the chemical process and being gentle for the earth and the environment, and there is an expectation of using and developing the technique.
A technique of removing the resist film remaining on the surface of the semiconductor apparatus, the liquid crystal device or the like by using the water vapor is described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-118817. In accordance with the publication mentioned above, there is disclosed a technique of lifting off the residual resist film from the surface of the subject by high temperature mist in the water vapor so as to remove it.
However, in order to completely peel out and remove the resist film, it is necessary to generate a lot of water vapor, so that there is a disadvantage that an electric power consumption is too large.
As a result of devoting themselves to and taking into consideration a mechanism of peeling out and removing the resist film by using the water vapor, the inventors of the present application have noted that the peeling and removing process of the resist film is constituted by the following two steps.
That is, at first, vaporized water (this is called as a water vapor body) permeates through the resist film so as to reach an interface between the resist film and the surface of the subject, thereby weakening a bonding force of the resist film on this interface and floating the resist film from the surface of the subject (lifting off).
Next, mist-like water containing liquid water fine particles together with a predetermined injection pressure (this is called as a water mist body) physically acts on the lifted off resist film so as to peel out the resist film from the interface.
Since the water vapor body and the water mist body have different roles in the peeling and removing process of the resist film as mentioned above, if it is possible to control the water vapor body and the water mist body most appropriately so as to generate them, a lot of water is not required and it is possible to reduce electric power consumption.
That is, the water vapor body requires an application of a high temperature and a high energy for the purpose of permeating through the resist film, however, the amount to be required is a little. Accordingly, it is possible to generate the water vapor body by a little electric power consumption.
On the contrary, since the water mist body is used for physically peeling out the lifted off resist film, the amount to be required is more than that of the water vapor body, however, it is not necessary to heat to a high temperature, and it is only necessary that a predetermined injection pressure is applied, so that the electric power consumption for the generation is hardly required.
In this regard, in the method of utilizing the water vapor described in the publication mentioned above, since the water mist body and the water vapor body exist in a mixed state without being controlled to the respective optimum conditions, efficiency has been deteriorated.